Factsheet
Developer:
Story Juice
Based in Plymouth, UK
Release date:
2023
Platforms:
Android & iOS
Website:
glassceilinggames.com
Regular Price:
| TBA |
Description
The Glass Ceiling Games is a cathartic feminist punk augmented reality game for mobile. Slay everyday sexism, boss up the ranks of a skyscraper named The System and smash the glass ceiling to a Riot Grrrl-inspired electropunk soundtrack! In a Buffy The Vampire Slayer meets the Olympic Games experience, players master a new fantasy combat sport each level; including slingshotting catcalls, boxing stereotypes, macheteing unsolicited dick pix, batting emotional labour, throwing babies in baskets labelled ‘man’s work’ and raygunning mansplains, to win a haul of freedom, money and joy points. The game is inspired by personal experiences of sexism and DIY intersectional feminism and uses comedic and subversive game mechanics to offer a cathartic rush as players let out their rage against the patriarchy!
History
The Glass Ceiling Games began development in June 2019 after Story Juice won a grant from the UK Games Fund for a prototype. The initial concept emerged from an Immersion Fellowship Story Juice creative director, Hannah Wood, completed in 2018-19 with the South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN), where her research question asked how to use poetic mechanics for narrative affect. Hannah was driven by a desire to foreground the underrepresented stories of women and diverse genders in games and applied personal experiences of sexism to the design. This was further informed by diverse focus groups, playtesting and input from other team members. The game’s development has since been funded by Story Juice client work and a small grant from Creative UK’s Ideate Plymouth programme. In May 2022, Story Juice launches a Kickstarter campaign to build an audience for the game and raise the funds needed to complete its development.
Features
- Immersion in a fantasy world where you have powers you might wish you had in the real world.
- Six augmented reality levels that embed the digital game world in your real world environment, whether playing inside or outside.
- An iconographic cartoon neon art style where unsolicited dick pix are represented as phallic foodstuffs and mansplains as troll heads.
- An electropunk album you play, with gameplay designed to a soundtrack by Go Fallopian!, storytelling delivered through lyrics and levels lasting the approximate 2:30-minute length of each audio track.
- Cathartic, reverse power fantasy mechanics that feature a different weapon and challenge each level.
- Replayability to beat your, or your friends, previous haul of freedom, money and joy.
- Dark humour to make an unapologetic, feminist punk point.
Videos
Kickstarter YouTube
Trailer YouTube
Augmented reality gameplay walkthrough YouTube
Catcall level music clip YouTube
Unsolicited Pix level music clip YouTube
Images
Logo & Icon
Selected Articles
- "The Glass Ceiling Games is a playful alternate power fantasy that makes people laugh, but also voices the sexism women and diverse genders face daily. Its goal is to provoke changes that can end sexism."
- Hannah Wood, Story Juice Creative Director, - "We at Watershed are very excited about The Glass Ceiling Games. It is a brilliant example of how nuanced research into game mechanics, affect and immersive experience can be mobilised into a product that is unique, meaningful and really good fun. As a team of producers in creative technology concerned about gender politics and their effect on media content, the technology sector, broader society and our own lives… we can’t wait to play."
- Jo Lansdowne, Executive Producer Watershed and South West Creative Technology Network, - "Story Juice is an exciting South West company innovating in immersive experiences. It’s also contributing to changing the narrative for women and girls in games, through representation and the processes of making. The game is funny and empowering. A rare and timely power-fantasy game for those societally disempowered."
- Katie Keeler, Executive Producer of Kaleider, partner on the South West Creative Technology Network, - "Story Juice is an incredibly innovative creative studio and we’re excited to see where the UK Games Fund-backed Glass Ceiling Games progresses in the marketplace."
- Kirsty Gibson, Head of Community at UK Games Fund, - "We wholeheartedly support Story Juice and The Glass Ceiling Games. It's a game that has gone from strength to strength and should be on everyone's phones. Story Juice has always been a staunch advocate and supporter of the games industry, and we loved working with them throughout our programmes, as well as feeling like the funding we have offered them has been put to good use!"
- Chris Filip, Head of Creative Enterprise at Creative UK,
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Additional Links
Standing on the shoulders of Riot Grrrl: Story Juice and punk feminism in games in gamesindustry.biz
When you can’t see your stories and perspectives in an industry, then you have to put them there. https:.
Meet the game band Go Fallopian! who talk airing vaginas and razing the patriarchy!
Let’s give vaginas a bit more airtime so the world isn’t so weird about them. Air the vaginas. That could have been another cool band name to be fair. https:.
About Story Juice
Boilerplate
Story Juice is an immersive and game development studio creating original storyworlds that put you at the heart. It focuses on the underrepresented stories of women and diverse genders and supporting those people to develop their careers in the industry.
More information
More information on Story Juice, our logo & relevant media are available here.
Glass Ceiling Games Credits
Hannah Wood
Creative Director, Writer, Narrative Designer, Game Designer
Morgan Ellis
Programmer
Kate Morris
Programmer
Andrew Sargeant
Programmer
John Campbell
Programmer
Daisy Williams
3D and Concept Artist
Miles Rodyakin
UI Artist
Anna Wheatley
Songwriter, Musician (Go Fallopian!), Singer, Voice Over Artist
Benjamin Hudson
Composer, Musician (Go Fallopian!), Sound Designer
James Stewart
Composer, Musician (Go Fallopian!), Sound Designer
Lucy Board
Musician (Go Fallopian!)
Dawn Hammond-Quaye
Writer and Narrative Designer
Viktoria Nestorova
3D Artist
Lucy Earp
3D Artist and Animator
Ellie Harrodine
2D Artist
Bree Hammond
3D and 2D Artist
Maxim Isakov
3D Artist
Leah Philpot
Game Designer and 2D Artist
Todor Stoyanov
3D Artist, Animator and Programmer
Hannah Alexander
Audience Development Manager
Erin Lindsay
Social Media Content Producer
Amanda Bluglass
Trailer Director
Jake Cauty
Trailer Cinematographer, Camera Operator and Editor
Jason Robbins
Trailer VFX Animation (Engine House)
Natasha Price
Trailer VFX Project Management (Engine House)
Christopher Baker
Trailer Sound Recordist
Rose Thompson
Trailer Production Assistant
Contact
Inquiries
glassceiling@storyjuice.co.uk
Twitter
https://twitter.com/glassceilingame
Facebook
https://facebook.com/glassceilinggames
presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks